middle class uniform

[southeastastra]

st albans today was like a boden/joules catalogue

why do the middle classes have to follow such uniform? it's all very samey, those designer welly boots and colourful rainwear

don't get it myself, surely if you have ££ to spend on wear why pick fatface/white stuff boring brands

I wasn't slagging off being "safe" nor do I think wearing a uniform means you're unimaginative. I was just observing it's what I do, while believing myself to be a bit individual and quirky.

Fashion is like interior design and architecture and cooking. They're things you can do in a very basic, traditional or straightforward way or they could be areas where you do like to get more imaginative, creative and expressive. Most people are somewhere towards the middle while some are more wacky in some areas.

I wear some Fat Face, White Stuff and Monsoon. I had no idea they were so reviled until I came on here.

Now I am also dying inside. I shall just put on a onesie and wait for the end.

wally another welsh girl here and the way they dress in cardiff to bristol for night out vastly different. much less high maintanance here but little part of me misses being very dressy but if did now would like like overdressed mutton and as a mum of 3who rarly goes out my wardrobe consists of jeans and we live in very mc area and household income pts us reasonably well of we skint and most time buy 2nd hand.

I have brought few bots from boden but find they never look same i real life that they do on book bit frumpy. johhny b better if you very skinny.
love boden for small kiddies my 7year old prefers joules but shes also happy in primarnie and marks.

Joules i used to like but think becoming very status symbol, least they have shops and my mate who used to be joules addict says the qualitys definatly gone down and now can even buy it from next book.
I find next bit try hard and people on next pages on fb very weird like they have to buy entire range, I used to work for next and apart from tailoring odd kiddies item nothing took my francy stopped buying in there for kids as hates to see kids in same outfits when went put happened at few baby groups

My boden rainy day mac was crap. lutying after few joules jackets last few years but not brought, one freinds just brought so cant get it now and liking look of barbour but think they becoming high fashion /trendy now too.

I own some hunters brought 2nd hand wor once festival high gloss ones wear to school as do many parents as pavenments and area around primary complete mud bath at vilage school and i walk alot and it seems to rain a lot but I only wear them in winter.

Husband used to work outdoor company and northface is for the status and the decent brands berghauss, rab far more discrete and cost more than northface. I do think when see adults in superdry why?

Our plagrund is full of very casual dressers jeans, decet jackets and wellies its nt at all showy but guess everyone looks kidn of similar where as last school more urban was much more flashy with labels and powersuits.

I think we subconciously dress to fit in unless you fashion brave like carrie bradshaw. as teen I was bit hippy and today im still bit out there boho look husband hates, I love fashion but dont have time or oney spend on it anymore so when see something i like mostly carboot/charity shop i buy.

I spent a few years in my 20's dressing as I thought I should for my age but I just felt wrong

I might know what you mean, but might not uncleguber

In my 20s I had completely different wardrobes for work and going out.

For work I wore things that 25 years on I would now dismiss as too old for me. Lots of Margaret Thatcher pussy-cat bows from M&S. But that's the image I was trying to portray.

I bumped into someone from work on a night out. I was wearing a skin-tight ruched lycra dress with no room for underwear. She was clearly shocked. I thought she was underdressed.

Well, I was the one who was underdressed. She looked frumpy

Are people wearing their clothes inside out? Or forgetting to cut the price tags off?

I don't have labels showing on anything, except maybe on my colourful rainwear, which everyone wears around here (regardless of demographics) because it is incessantly raining.

Sorry but I like Boden. Comfortable, well made clothes that wash well. It might be trendy to criticise them but it won't stop me buying goods that are good quality. I also like Celtic sheepskin so ........

TheBigBumTheory I once told someone that you're meant to cut off the identifying label on the cuff of your suit jacket because that's just for ease of reference for customers and staff in the shop.

But he asked. He was grateful. We're still friends. I wouldn't have been rude enough to have pointed it out.

They should have done it in the shop for him.

But plenty of things have brand names or identifying designs on the outside and that's perfectly okay IMO, like most jeans whatever the price, lots of shoes or handbags - Tod's have knobby rubber nipples on them and Gucci have the snaffle bit, linked Gs or red and green, Louis Vuitton have LV or checks, Mulberry has a tree, Nike has a Swoosh, Adidas has stripes etc - and things such as Berghaus, NorthFace or SuperDry.

I like boring, comfortable and practical. I don't enjoy shopping and a shop that makes the experience less stressful is the shop I will spend my money in.

Thus, I buy almost everything from White Stuff these days. The shops have tents/cubby holes for children to play in (sometimes there's even a fibreglass dog for DD2 to talk to) and the staff will keep an eye open to ensure no small child escapes through the door. Added to that, the discounts can often be used in conjunction with each other and because the styles don't vary too much I can buy things without having to try them on. And there's lots available on eBay.

I'm happy blending in, being anonymous and not drawing attention to myself. White Stuff clothes do that for me. But I don't have flowery wellies or colourful waterproofs.

I wear formal clothes for work, and at weekends tend to wear Noa Noa or White Stuff. Didn't realise that this was an attempt to send out secret "I'm middle class" signals masonic style, more that I actually quite like Noa Noa and WS clothes and I can get into a size 12 in WS whereas everywhere else I'm a 14

I do sometimes like the look of Boden tops but they don't cut them to fit us goddesses with broad shoulders and 34FFboobs, so haven't got any of their stuff.

Have also realised that I am typing this whilst wearing a Sea Salt top and Fat Face jumper, along with WS jeans. Clearly there is no hope for me slinks off to check out the White Stuff sale page

I hate shopping and only buy stuff online. I like Hush and Plumo (only in sale and even then expensive) and also just started getting a few things from Boden and Great Plains. Cashmere jumpers other wardrobe staple. My main criteria is whatever is lying on the floor closest to my bed that is relatively clean! Am permanently sleep deprived so frequently look like a dog's dinner and tbh I don't really care. A good day is one when I manage to brush my hair before heading out. I spend half my time on my knees clearing up after toddler and wear wellies a lot because DS likes splashing in puddles. Am far too busy running after toddler to notice what other people are wearing. I shall clearly have to up my game when DS starts school!

The upside of looking such a scruff bag is that on the rare occasion when I have hair/makeup and dress up, I scrub up quite well.

My alter ego in Italy (where you have to look smart on pain of death) wears Max Mara and Max & Co.

Hmm she types wearing a white stuff tunic, next to dd who is in one of her brother's old and very large (on her) Jack Wills' sweat shirts :)

I only know about Fat Face, Cath Kidson, White Company, Barbour through reading MN.

I shop in H&M and Primark mainly. I have a fair idea of what is in high fashion but as I cannot keep up with it I do not even bother to buy anything 'edgy'.

At times I feel my lifestyle is crap compared to a lot of Mumsnetters who wear labels, drive 4 by 4s, eat out at posh restaurants, live in a perfect suburban house on a perfect road etc.

Thank goodness I do not work in the city or West End where I would be surrounded by colleagues dressed to the nines in designer gear.

Perfect suburban house give me quirky and a bit 'out there' any day

I have a lovely Boden coat bought in the sale - had lots of compliments. I think Joules is good quality - the knitwear is so soft and the blouses iron well. I also like Whistles and Hobbs NW3 but falling out of love with Monsoon.

I am educated mc from wc roots - we never bought expensive clothes when I was younger and I try to buy the best I can afford now as I think they fit better and feel nicer. But then - I also read social anthropology and realise it is all tribal. My social instincts are telling me to wear scarves and silver jewellry

I wear Boden (which I can only afford to buy if it's reduced by 70% in the sale...actually most of my stuff is vintage Boden now) mainly because I prefer to shop online. I don't really give a toss if others judge me for that.

I'm middle class, very middle class indeed, and I shop at Ocado. Johnny Boden has found this out, through his normal channels and has decided that I am his target market. He has inundated me with catalogues, personal letters, discount codes and vouchers of every single type. I could give you a full run down of every single garment they've produced for the last five years which is why I can spot them on other people. Still not going to do my clothes shopping from a catalogue though - I live in a place with actual shops.

Someone I know bought Hunter boots and was practically willing for it to snow in order to wear them!

Southeast, your OP made me laugh with recognition. Long ago now, I'd just moved back to the UK from a country with very different fashion influences, and was staying in St Alban's. I went to Sainsbury's and was FASCINATED by the colourful matchiness of all the families there! It really did look as though there was a style book for the whole town, and some undercover fashion dictator bought for them all from the same shop

Not much later, of course, I'd been reassimilated by London and spent my entire life in stretchy black trousers with simple tops ... just a different uniform.

I've never received a boden,joules,fat face,or white company catalogue
I wouldn't instantly on sight recognise the above brands. Why would I?
I know cath kidston have pal who loves all CK shabby chic chintz

I would find this thread less confounding if I understood what middle class actually means these days. Is it about income, job, family background? Can you be born wc and become mc? If you wear Boden and Joules are you mc even if you work in a coal mine? Honest question from a foreigner who has only managed to master the language, not the mind...

p.s. was born mc, am still mc, but don't wear Joules/Boden (too pricey). But quite like the look -- at least it's not all boring and grey. I like COLOURS.

That's a whole can of worms you've opened there CHJR

I know, which is the part that's hardest for a foreigner to really understand. Not having grown up with it, I don't get this obsession with class (in the US it's race, even if they don't quite realise, where I was born it was religion, etc). But it's like swear words in a foreign language, you sort of understand the intent but the impact is just not there!!

What bit of forrin do you come from CHJR?

I need to know before I can comment because some nationalities are far more attuned to the class indicators of possessions than I could ever hope to be.

With respect I'd say it's nonsense for forriners to eschew social indicators. Whether you want to describe it as class or something else is up to you.

And I say that as quite an acquisitive English person of working class background just about holding on to a middle class lifestyle in London with lots of forrin friends from lots of countries and lots of social backgrounds.